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Book Review: The Killables by Gemma Malley


The Killables (The Killables, #1)Title: The Killables 
Author: Gemma Malley
Series: The Killables, #1
Pages: 384
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Date of Publication: 29th March 2012
Source: Publisher
Synopsis from Goodreads: Everyone accepted that people were different physically. But inside? Inside, they were different too. You just had to know how to tell, what to look for.

Evil has been eradicated. The City has been established. And citizens may only enter after having the 'evil' part of their brain removed. They are labelled on the System according to how 'good' they are. If they show signs of the evil emerging, they are labelled a K . . . But no one knows quite what that means. Only that they disappear, never to be seen again...

My Thoughts:
I had high hopes for this book. I read the first book in Gemma Malley's other series, The Declaration, back when it was first released, and while I can't remember much about it at all, I do remember really enjoying it, so when I heard that she was publishing another dystopian series, I was excited. However, whether it was because I was in a bit of a reading slump at the time, or whether it was because my expectations were too high, but this book wasn't quite as good as I expected it to be. I liked it, but there was something missing.

I think one of the biggest problems with this book for me was that I couldn't help but compare it to other, in my opinion, better dystopian YA books that I've read in the past, like Delirium by Lauren Oliver and Matched by Ally Condie. I think that right now there are so many YA dystopians coming out, due to the popularity of The Hunger Games, so it's becoming difficult for books to really stand out in the genre, because there are so many out there that are so similar, that a book needs a spark of something new and exciting to make it really AMAZING.

The idea behind The Killables intrigued me, and I thought it had a lot of potential to be a really interesting read. However, nothing much happened in the book, and I didn't really see the point, for quite a lot of it. It took me a whole week to get through one hundred reeaaaallly slooooww pages, but I didn't want to give up and stop reading because I was hoping for such good things that I powered through to see if it got better towards the end. And it did... Sort of.

Once the main characters, Evie and Raffy, have actually escaped from their City, it gets a bit more interesting. There's more action, rather than whole chapters of explanation that I just got bored of. About a third of the way through the plot picked up, and I found myself quite enjoying it. It still wasn't the best book I'd read, but it was no longer a drag to read more than ten pages in one sitting.

For the most part, The Killables was just OK, although I did enjoy the last hundred pages quite a lot. If you're a huge fan of dystopians, then maybe this won't be for you as it is very similar and not quite as good as a lot of other popular YA titles right now, but if you're new to the genre and haven't read a large number of them, you might enjoy this more. I don't know if I'll read the next book in the series - the end was a bit of a cliffhanger so pure curiosity might get the better of me, but I'm definitely not on the edge of my seat waiting for it.

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Comments

  1. I agree! I was actually talking with Beckie @ Bittersweet Enchantment today and we were discussing how similar YA books are becoming. There are so many dystopian (and vampire) stories out there that it's hard to create something new without being repetitive.

    I love the idea behind this book and I haven't read Delirium and Matched yet so I might give it a try later on. :)

    Thanks for the honest review!

    Vicky
    Books, Biscuits, and Tea

    ReplyDelete
  2. I must admit I am a little bored of dystopian at the moment. I want something different.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really liked the sound of this one (and I loved The Declaration too) but Ive seen really lukewarm reviews of it so I'm not sure how I feel about it...I might give it a go anyway, though. Great review, really balanced

    The Cait Files

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really wanted to read this book, the synopsis is very intriguing. Thank you for the honest review though, but I'm not sure if I should read it now :/

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've heard a lot about Gemma Malley, but haven't read anything by her yet. The Killables has a really interesting concept, but like Viv said above, I think I might be getting a little bit bored of dystopian. Great review, though ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's a shame you didn't enjoy this one, however as Ive just bought The Declaration I'm glad you did enjoy that! ;)

    ReplyDelete

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